The Corrections might never make it to screen, but Jonathan Franzen’s New Yorker essay on songbird poaching, “Emptying the Skies” (behind the paywall), is already a documentary. The film follows a group of bird lovers trying to save the endangered animals and even includes an interview with Franzen. Although the documentary just found a distributor, there is no word on an official release date. Until then, here’s the trailer.
Franzen on Film
Lispector Inspector
The new issue of The New York Review of Books is out. A highlight, as usual, is Michael Wood, who does a better job than we did with Inherent Vice. But those of us on this side of the pay wall will have to make do with Lorrie Moore's intriguing essay on Clarice Lispector.
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And a Not-So-Happy New Year
Is this the best Christmas card in history? Several members of the Paris Review staff received cards that bore the following William Gaddis quote: “‘Merry Christmas,’ the man threatened.” (h/t Justin Alvarez)
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“Its seeming ability to live without food and family”
Recommended Reading: "Out on the Coast" by David Rice.
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“Gundersonia, land of the really free.”
Recommended Reading: Return to Oakpine author Ron Carlson’s short story, “How Things Have Actually Changed Since We Did Secede from the United States.”
Jay-Z and Michiko K.: Kindred Spirits
Michiko Kakutani's generous and oddly moving review of Jay-Z's Decoded - in which she seems to find a kindred spirit - almost makes me want to take back all the mean things I've said about her. I still don't trust her judgment, but the review's worth reading just for the mental image of her in big headphones, nodding along to "Streets Is Watching." Go 'head, shorty.
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Literary Bald Britney Spears
Following Sarah Hepola's devastating New York Times Magazine profile of Cat Marnell with empathy and queer theory, Jane Hu's piece on what it means to read Marnell, to follow her and crave her work even as her work destroys her, merits reading and rereading.
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